Odd Nerdrum

"We can all see very quickly whether there is or is not a talent. No problem. When the artists envy you, that is a very good sign. But you have a choice. So you strive to be the best, instead of denying standards and saying you hate those things. There is really no reason, after all, to hate anything because the good things live for themselves. They just are there and they are smiling at you.Odd Nerdrum, excerpted from his interview with Maria Keyn in Kitsch, More than Art.

The Master and His Students

Norwegian artist Odd Nerdrum (born 1944) was a student at the Academy of Art in Oslo when modernism made its delayed entry into Norway. Nerdrum broke away from his peers who rallied around the likes of Warhol and Lichtenstein, instead becoming a follower of Rembrandt and a painter in the classical tradition. Art students from all over the world have since sought out his teachings, and many have become internationally known in their own right. This book documents the vast influence of Odd Nerdrum, and his followers who went on to become some of today's leading figurative painters. Among the many artists included are Nerdrum himself, Amy Sherald, Andrea J. Smith, Andrew Scheglow, Anthony Ackrill, Atle Skudal, Austin Murphy, Billy Roy Okland, Boris Koller, Brad Silverstein, Brad Wilde, Brandon Kralik, Caleb Knodell, Carlos Madrid, Christer Tronsmed, Cornelia Maria Hernes, Clarissa James, David Maddy, David Molesky, David Ransom, Dylan Chritchfield Sales, Elisabeth Gyllensten, Eri Hareyiama, Evan Kitson, Even Richardson, Fereidoun Ghaffari, Francis O'Toole, Gabrielle Vitollo, Geir Stahl, Guillermo Lorca Garcia Huidobro, Gunnar Haslund, Harald Kolderup, Hege Elisabeth Haugen, Helene Knoop, Irena Jovic, Ivanco Talevski, Jan-Ove Tuv, Jay Senetchko, Jeremy Francis Bell, Joakim Ericsson, Joel Frank and Johan Patricny.

Published by N Press.Text by Hanne Nabintu Herland, Gregory David Roberts.

A provocative and prolific painter, Odd Nerdrum employs old-world techniques and an ancient Greek palette to craft paintings that follow in the tradition of the masters Rembrandt, Caravaggio and Titian. Ever since his beginnings as a painter in the early sixties, Nerdrum has been a provocative voice among his peers, often representing sociopolitical struggle and the plight of the oppressed. His depictions of the human figure glow with warmth and dignity, and his timeless themes resonate with his viewers regardless of culture and social standing. Just as the figures in Nerdrum’s paintings struggle through barren, often post-apocalyptic landscapes, his vital and poignant works stand out amongst the stark abstractions of the world of modern art. He remains a provocateur in his native Norway, a challenging voice in contemporary society, and one of the most exciting creators of our time. Throughout the last 30 years of his painting, a recurring archetype emerges. He is the Refugee--an alien to his own time and place, an outcast ostracized by the deciders of politics, fashion and culture and a nomad searching to transcend the temporal and find refuge in the eternal. This new collection of paintings, carefully selected from the best of his body of work, is devoted to the story of the Refugee, as it has unfolded over time, in 172 brilliantly reproduced paintings, accompanied by 83 details. The book features an exposed binding, so that it can be laid flat for close inspection. Gregory David Roberts, author of the acclaimed novel Shantaram, lends a thoughtful introduction to the book, paying tribute to the enduring themes of Nerdrum’s works.

Published by Atlantis.Edited by Bengt Tornvall. Text by Allis Helleland.

For a painter who took his earliest bearings from Rembrandt, and who has defiantly espoused the values of old master painting, the self-portrait is a natural enough genre to pursue. For Odd Nerdrum, the attractions of self-portraiture run much deeper, however. Nerdum has frequently alluded to the “conflicted preoccupation with origins and personal identity” that his paintings express, and traces this preoccupation to his discovery that his father was not the father he had known growing up, but a previous lover of his mother’s. Also abandoned by his mother at an early age, he recollects of his early years: “I was a beggar in a world ruled by others. The person I found in the mirror was myself, I saw myself reflected in my own eyes, not those of others.” Nerdrum’s difficult childhood and the isolation he has endured as a painter have greatly intensified the relevance of the self-portrait, a genre at which he has excelled, and for which he has become particularly well known. This volume collects Nerdum’s self-portraits for the first time, with more than 100 color reproductions.

Kitsch is Odd Nerdrum's luxuriously produced apologia for the enduring relevance of the old master style. Containing writings and interviews by and with Nerdrum alongside hefty plate sections of both Nerdrum's own paintings and those by painters he sees as exemplars of a certain kind of figurative art, it is a bold attack on the foundations of modernism. In Nerdrum's view, what we call “kitsch” art is a consequence of modernism's “make it new” ethic. For Nerdrum, this insistence on novelty has permeated the thinking of institutions, critics, artists and the public, and has effectively suppressed what Nerdrum most values in a work of art: sentimentality, passion, pathos and the self-evident skill and emotion of sheer craft. By this latter value in particular, the kitsch painter is able to work according to knowable standards that painting prior to modernism has established--standards that are “more than art,” for, as Nerdrum puts it, “the kitsch painter commits himself to the eternal: love, death and the sunrise.” Kitsch is a manifesto that recruits figurative painters both old and new, such as William Dyce, Paul Fenniak, Sampo Kaikkonen, Isaac Levitan, Osiris Rain, Ilya Repin, Giovanni Segantini, Valentin Serov, George Tooker, George Frederick Watts and Anders Zorn, and situates their work alongside more than 70 of Nerdrum's recent paintings. Alongside essays, poems and plays by the artist, Kitsch contains an extended dialogue on the topic between Nerdrum and Maria Kreyn.

Six Short Stories by Odd Nerdrum

Published by N-Press.

How We Cheat Each Other is a textbook on human deceit, as narrated by Odd Nerdrum. It consists of six short stories in dialogue form, drawing on Nerdrum's experiences in Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Russia and Germany, and spanning "The Last Days of Immanuel Kant" in the eighteenth century through to our time, and into the future. The theme of cheating takes various forms: Kant cheats the Dutch painter Haan Van Meegeren who in turn deceives the world with his forgeries; a German writer is cheated by his country after the Second World War; the protagonist of "The Diamond Man" is cheated by a spirit; in "The Sleepwalker" a Swedish painter is continually cheated by his environment; in "Marlowe" a neglected poet cheats the system that had ignored him for years; and the concluding story, "After Armageddon," ends with an explosion of all kinds of cheating against a backdrop of torture and slaughter.

Published by Forum Gallery, New York.

This slender catalogue features the most recent body of work by the important figurative artist Odd Nerdrum. The condition of man, alone in the universe, has long been Nerdrum's essential subject, and the eight new paintings detailed here continue themes repeatedly explored by this consummate representational painter, including such basic feelings and needs as love, fear, reverence and conflict, as well as the ideas of man cast against nature, society versus solitude and the limits of man's location within the universe. Featuring haunting self-portraiture and figures that float, free of gravity and disconnected in space, this volume offers a brief glimpse of Nerdrum's vision of man's position in the universe. Removed from any earthly landscape, man is not circumscribed by life on earth, but is shown in the deep space of the night sky or the endless depth of primordial waters, free to explore the boundaries of human potential.

Published by Press Publishing.Essay by BjØrn Li.

Themes is the most comprehensive collection of Odd Nerdrum's works ever published. Its 500 pages are filled with sketches, drawings and studies, along with excellent reproductions of the artist's most important and most recent finished works. A wide selection of close-up details offers the tightest possible view of Nerdrum's brushstrokes, which will be of particular interest to students--those who wish to learn his modern take on the Old Master style just as they would learn from the work of the Old Masters themselves. The selection is the artist's own, divided into 20 chapters devoted to space, nudes, portraits and other topics, and presented chronologically within each chapter to show the development of specific motifs over the course of his career. This structure and the wide range of work present provoke new insights into the central themes in Nerdrum's work, and his treatment of them from first sketches to final canvases. Nerdrum's latest works--more than 40 paintings in all, dating from the last five years--are presented here for the first time. They complete an unprecedented overview of his oeuvre, a must for everyone interested in the how and why behind one of today's most controversial and celebrated painters.

PUBLISHERPRESS PUBLISHING

BOOK FORMATClothbound, 11 x 12.25 in. / 550 pgs / 450 color.

PUBLISHING STATUSPUB DATE 4/15/2007Out of print

DISTRIBUTIOND.A.P. EXCLUSIVECATALOG: FALL 2006 p. 28

PRODUCT DETAILSISBN 9788275472265TRADELIST PRICE: $85.00 CDN $100.00

AVAILABILITYNot Available

STATUS: Out of print | 00/00/00

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Paintings, Sketches and Drawings

Published by Norsk Forlag.Essay by Richard Vine.

With a huge cult following among lovers of figurative painting, outsider art fans and students, Norwegian artist Odd Nerdrum has carved out a unique niche in the world of contemporary art. With his Old Master style and his often apocalyptic subject matter, Nerdrum rejects the tropes of Modernism in favor of an emotionalism which, when combined with his remarkable painterly talents, produces works that are not only visually arresting, but which also call into question the very foundations of contemporary art. Odd Nerdrum: Sketches, Drawings and Paintings brings together the recent work completed since the publication of Storyteller and Self-Revealer in 1998, as well as earlier work, including, for the first time, an extensive selection of drawings and sketches. At 400 pages, with over 200 color illustrations, this volume is the most comprehensive book available on the work of one of the world's most popular and idiosyncratic artists.

PUBLISHERNORSK FORLAG

BOOK FORMATHardcover, 11.5 x 11.5 in. / 400 pgs / 250 color / 150 bw.

PUBLISHING STATUSPUB DATE 11/2/2001Out of print

DISTRIBUTIOND.A.P. EXCLUSIVECATALOG: FALL 2001

PRODUCT DETAILSISBN 9788248901211TRADELIST PRICE: $65.00 CDN $75.00

AVAILABILITYNot Available

STATUS: Out of print | 12/1/2010

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Kitsch has long been viewed as fine art's poor relation, aping its form while failing utterly to achieve its depth of meaning. In On Kitsch Odd Nerdrum and others discuss the meaning and value of kitsch in today's world, and its relationship to art. For the first time in this volume, English-speaking fans have the chance to read the writings of Odd Nerdrum, Norway's most famous contemporary artist, or kitch painter, as he would refer to himself. This printing of a variety of writings by Nerdrum and others includes speeches, essays, and humorous pieces such as "The Kitch Questionnaire," and "Kitch Aphorisms." This book is an opportunity to discover the thought process of one of the world's most unique and compelling artists.

PUBLISHERKAGGE

BOOK FORMATPaperback, 5.5 x 8 in. / 104 pgs / 12 color.

PUBLISHING STATUSPUB DATE 8/2/2001Out of print

DISTRIBUTIOND.A.P. EXCLUSIVECATALOG: FALL 2001

PRODUCT DETAILSISBN 9788248901235TRADELIST PRICE: $19.50 CDN $25.00

AVAILABILITYNot Available

STATUS: Out of print | 4/1/2008

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Published by Forum Gallery, New York.Artwork by Odd Nerdrum.

This postcard book includes reproductions of twenty-four paintings by Odd Nedrum from 1987 to 1998, featuring narrative landscapes, figurative paintings, and recent self-portraits. With an immense American and international following, Odd Nedrum is an iconoclastic and visionary painter whose painterly "Old Master Style" represents both a reaction against contemporary aesthetics and a radical updating of traditional narrative and religious art.

PUBLISHERFORUM GALLERY, NEW YORK

BOOK FORMATPaperback, 4.25 x 6 in. / 24 pgs / 24 color.

PUBLISHING STATUSPUB DATE 1/2/2000Out of print

DISTRIBUTIOND.A.P. EXCLUSIVECATALOG: SPRING 2000

PRODUCT DETAILSISBN 9780967582603TRADELIST PRICE: $14.00 CDN $15.00

AVAILABILITYNot Available

STATUS: Out of print | 8/1/2007

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This large-format paperback reproduces more than 100 of Odd Nerdrum's works as well as more than fifty details that allow the reader to study his highly accomplished techniques. Author Jan Ake Pettersson traces Nerdrum's development from his controversial break with modernism in the sixties up through his signature work of the '90s.

PUBLISHERH. ASCHEHOUG & CO.

BOOK FORMATPaperback, 9 x 11 in. / 256 pgs / 185 color / 50 bw

PUBLISHING STATUSPUB DATE 11/2/1998Out of print

DISTRIBUTIOND.A.P. EXCLUSIVECATALOG: FALL 1998

PRODUCT DETAILSISBN 9788203222726TRADELIST PRICE: $49.95 CDN $60.00

AVAILABILITYNot Available

STATUS: Out of print | 12/21/2001

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With over 100 color reproductions, this handsome monograph provides the first comprehensive overview of the work of Norwegian painter, Odd Nerdrum. Describing the work, art critic Donald Kuspit writes, "It is because Nerdrum heroically brings together breakdown and beauty that his paintings are as reliably absurd--as absurdly sublime--as those of the Old Masters."